PrestaShop vs Magento comparison - Which platform should you choose? (Part 3)

In the last two parts, you were introduced to the benefits and drawbacks of the leading e-commerce platforms: PrestaShop, Shopify, and OpenCart. Moving on, we will review another powerful solution – Magento. Below is a general PrestaShop vs Magento comparison to help you find out the winner between two popular e-commerce solutions – PrestaShop and Magento.

A summary of PrestaShop and Magento

PrestaShop and Magento are both open-source e-commerce platforms that enable you to build and manage online stores effectively. Their customization abilities will allow you to make a unique and attractive online shop. To open a shop you will need some technical knowledge both with PrestaShop and Magento. PrestaShop is considered a little simpler and would be suggested for beginners and those merchants who are not particularly tech-savvy. Magento is somehow more complicated, yet the functionality it offers cannot be compared with any other solution currently available in the e-commerce market.

Popularity

According to the official PrestaShop website, this platform currently helps more than 270,000 merchants manage their stores and develop online businesses. Magento, on the other hand, is empowering over 650,000 websites worldwide. Obviously, Magento is more favored. However, PrestaShop has been growing in popularity over the past couple of years. A lot of e-commerce experts predict that PrestaShop will become one of Magento's alternatives shortly.

Design and templates

The general characteristics of PrestaShop themes are elegance, professionalism, and stylish. You are free to choose from more than 3,000 free and paid PrestaShop templates which include extra responsiveness features, themes color switcher, mega menu option, graphics included, and a front editor if you wish.

Magento-designed themes come with a modern and trendy look and well-organized categories. The only problem is only 9 themes are available on Magento official Marketplace. But don’t worry, you can search for the most adorable templates by visiting Theme Forest, Template Monster, and find the one that will appeal to your clients. Moreover, you can develop your own Magento theme if you have the necessary tech skills.

Ease of use

Between PrestaShop and Magento, the former would be a great option if you don’t have coding knowledge - it is much easier to adjust your PrestaShop online store. This platform has simplified the daily management of the store owner which will help you concentrate on important issues. You’ll receive some efficient assistance from advanced analytics and dashboard modules. Magento is currently known to be the most flexible e-commerce platform ever. It can ensure unlimited capabilities for tech-professional online merchants. Daily management of the online store on Magento will be a genuine joy, and it is pretty simple. For launching and setting up the website, you’ll need either experience in web development or to hire an expert to assist you.

E-commerce functionality

PrestaShop provides over 500 features already built-in. You can get all the fundamental functionality that an online merchant needs to start an online business. Smart Merchant KPI and Forecasting contain the PrestaShop unique features that improve its statistical facilities. In addition, PrestaShop also offers E-commerce Analytics which helps you analyze the traffic and make the most insightful decisions concerning your business strategy. These data will help you increase the conversion rate and boost your revenue. Another highlight point, PrestaShop supports integrations that will enable you to export product listings directly to eBay, Amazon, Google Shopping, and other popular marketplaces.

So far, you may think Magento has been losing to PrestaShop. Well, the situation will change radically from now. The list of Magento capabilities is extensive and can impress even the most demanding and experienced online merchant.

• Customer segmentation, merchandising, and targeted promotions
• Dynamic Rule-based product relations
• Stable shopping
• Automated email marketing reminder
• Private sales
• Gift registration and gifting options
• Reward points
• Store credits and multiple wish lists
• Return management authorization

You can read the full record of the Magento Features List here. I’m sure that the description will impress you.

Plugins and extensions

Magento brings you more functionality out of the box. However, the supply for the Magento extension has always been immense. Recently a new Magento Marketplace has been launched and it provides nearly 3,000 extensions, both paid and free. This amount will increase sharply in a couple of weeks and Magento can take its leading position back very quickly. PrestaShop Add-ons Marketplace suggests 5,000 modules, responsive themes, and services that will meet all your demands. Here you’ll find valuable modules to boost your online business – they have everything from drop-shipping to flash sales.

Pricing

When it comes to pricing, Magento can offer two options: Magento CE (Community Edition) which is free for download and use, moreover, you don’t need any monthly subscription. Another one is Magento EE (Enterprise Edition). It is ideal for large businesses and the price depends on the size of your business while Magento CE is the perfect choice for small or medium-sized businesses. PrestaShop is also free for download and use, but it requires paid web hosting. There is no way you can launch a functional PrestaShop store without purchasing several charged modules and a responsive template.

SEO optimized

Magento is among the leading e-commerce platforms due to its extensive SEO functionality. That means you need to be familiar with the optimization principles - nothing goes "preconfigured" with Magento. Lots of SEO settings are available in Magento. For example meta tags for products and home pages, image optimization, canonical tags for categories and products, edits of robot.txt files, etc. Regarding SEO optimization, PrestaShop does have sufficient functionality. You will get:

• Automated URL rewrite
• Dedicated SEO content sections for products
• CMS pages for quality content
• Advanced functionality Premium SEO modules on Prestashop Addons

Support service

Using an open-source platform means you will face many problems that can occur. Additionally, you can find the needed info on developer forums. Because of the free and open nature, Magento CE users do not have access to official support services. Fortunately, Magento has a huge developer community. And almost every platform-related question is already answered. However, users of Enterprise Edition may count on Magento-provided technical support service. They won’t need to search for answers in the infinity of community forum threads. PrestaShop Support offers assistance that could be hardly compared with any other e-commerce open-source solution, but unfortunately, it is charged. Here are some primary and cheapest Prestashop Support Plans: